Crossed Paths
by EsmeraldaValiente
Summary: The Animorphs have been given a mission to infiltrate a company known as Abstergo in order to prevent the Yeerks from having the upper hand. However, they discover a conspiracy greater than they had ever imagined. Still not sure when in the Animorphs book series this might happen, I'll try to get it figured out. Sooner or later. Just so you all know, no OCs this time.
1. Animorphs: Prologue

Animorphs: Prologue

"Hey are you sure this was the right address Erik gave you?" Marco asks Jake.

The Animorphs stare at a brightly illuminated enormous building with a concrete block next to it stating that it was Abstergo Industries. They are on the roof, barefoot with their brightly colored morphing clothing on.

"Man, it's too bad that Erik couldn't at least give us the name of the company or even a physical description of the place when he made the phone call. It would've really been helpful at a time like this," Rachel bluntly stated with her hands on her hips. "All that he was able to really tell us was a 'multinational corporate conglomerate', whatever that means."

"Actually Xena that refers to a company that is made up of many different smaller companies that specialize in located in many countries around the world."

"Whatever", she shrugs. "Erik was at least specific on our objective, destroying the portable Kandrona generator pieces in the facility."

"Alright then, let's move out," Jake says.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, looks like Marco did his research. I might have done his explanation for the phrase wrong, though. If you have a better explanation, please comment!


	2. The Assassin's Prologue

The Assassin's Prologue

_When we decided to let in Daniel Cross into the Creed, we had great expectations for the young man who seemed to be driven by a purpose. He had potential to unlock the secrets to finding the higher powers needed to defeat the Templars._

_What did happen was this. The bastard turned out to have been a traitor all along. He assassinated the Mentor and gave vital information of the whereabouts of every single den in the world. Afterwards, we had our advantages against the Templars taken from us in what seemed like only a moment. All our dens have been overturn, hundreds of documents stolen and corrupted, and countless of our personnel, staff, and agents killed. Even the children have been murdered systematically by their front, Abstergo._

_Now we all face the only choice of starting over in our defense with only small numbers and isolated locations against the bigger Goliath. I'm starting to believe that the Creed is nearing its end._

_Lost. We've lost for too long._

_-Paul Bellamy, December 2000_


	3. Kandrona Components?

**Warning guys, this chapter may be a bit dark and contains some bad words.**

**Thought-speak is underlined.**

* * *

Kandrona Components?

Marco

We moved in as flies. With absolutely no sense of direction. Erik really should've showed us pictures instead of sending us all out on a blind mission. I mean, it really doesn't make sense does it? Erik usually gives us all a chance to know the location before he sends us off.

Fortunately, we did have a hawk showing us the way.

Ok, now move more to the left. Now forward. commanded Tobias from way up in the sky. Shoot, I think this door is automated. I can see a sensor right above the door and there are still some people going in and out of here, so it's still in use. You guys might as well hitch a ride on someone. he reported. I don't see anyone scanning their IDs to get in or out. This might be an escape route if we have no other option, but the front door.

Great, that will be really useful if it's the only way out that we know. I remarked.

We waited for someone to walk in, then all landed on a suitcase of someone walking toward the facility. As expected, the door opened and we were in. We flew off of the suitcase and whizzed off.

Hey, you guys do realize that this was the easiest place we ever infiltrated. Rachel noted. Normally this place would be loaded with Biofilters, but I don't see anything of the sort.

Rachel, I looked up some information about the company online. They probably wouldn't put something as obvious as Yeerk technology at their front door if there are people of all corners of the world coming over. replied Cassie. It would probably raise too much suspicion.

I thought about it for a while. Actually I agree with Warrior Princess on this one. No one is aiming a Dracon beam or at least keeping a special eye out for at an obvious clump of flies buzzing around in a group.

Oops. said Jake. Everyone spread out. Even if we aren't getting attention yet, we will once they see that we're flying in a group.

We flew a few feet apart from each other, buzzing in directions that would seem random to those who happened to glance at us.

"Ugh, its like were having an infestation of flies", someone murmured from behind us. I turned to look with my compound eyes. A brown haired woman dressed in a lab coat swatted at Cassie while she walked down the corridor. "Pardon me, Doctor Vidic, I assure you that our facilities are sterile and clean. I don't understand why a bunch of flies happen to be flying around here."

"Of course, I understand, but I wouldn't want any of these pests ruining our work by contaminating our samples." A man who walked with an air of annoyance replied to her. "If it weren't too much to ask, can you get rid of them."

"Yes." She nodded and motioned one of the security guards and whispered in his ear. He walked off.

Wait, did she actually figure out that we might've been more than normal flies?

The security guard came back with a fly swatter. "Sorry, I couldn't find any bug spray in the closet."

"No matter, we have to get rid of these things before Vidic or upper management blows a fuse." She whispers in a harsh voice. He nods and strikes the swatter at us as she walks away with this "Dr. Vidic".

Auugggghh! Cassie yells as the guard swatted in here direction.

Crap! We have to hide somewhere before we have get one of us get squished flat, just like in The Warning! I thought-speak out to everyone.

What? Jake asks.

Just hide in the vents! And quick, I seriously do not want to go that way.

We fly away from the guard's reach and, one by one slip into the vents. We fly till we get blown by the breeze of one of the active air conditioners and flail around wildly until we get pushed against another vent and find a way out of the ventilation system.

Hey, I don't see anyone here. I think now would be a good time to find those parts before we get found out. Rachel suggests.

Wait, we're not sure if there's absolutely no one. He redirects his thought-speak to Tobias, who is probably flapping somewhere outside. Hey, Tobias, are you around here? If you can't find me, follow the source of my thoughts.

It takes him a few moments to finally find us. We spot him outside of a nearby window. Hi guys! Wow, it's getting really dark outside.

Do you see anyone in the room we're in?

No, though I can barely see in there because of the dim lighting. Besides, I flew around here about 10 minutes ago and saw people packing up and leaving the room.

Hey Ax, about how many minutes do we have left.

From the time it took to find someone to get in the building and from our misadventure in the ventilation system, about 48 minutes.

Great, I think that we should demorph and get this over with, he decides

Yes, and fast. Tobias agrees. There are some crazy looking owls out there. I really wouldn't want to be prey for them.

We all demorph back into our regular bodies, with Ax standing out from us with his Andalite body. We stroll around, trying to find anything that seems familiar to Ax as Yeerk tech in the large white room.

"Do you see anything yet?" Jake asks.

No, Prince Jake, none of this technology seems similar to anything that I've seen before. He puts his blue seven fingered hand over a contraption that has an orange reclining seat. Animus. He says, reading a label on the machine. This is a name I've never heard of before.

Rachel grimaces. "It looks like some sort of torture device", she says touching the wires sticking out of the machine.

Cassie shudders as she touches some nearby surgery tools. "Yeah, especially with these lying nearby."

"Ok, let's keep moving. I really do not want to find out what all this is for." Jake states.

We keep walking around, stumbling into more of these uncompleted "torture devices", DNA samples, blue prints, and components, but we don't see anything that Ax recognizes straight on.

After about 15 minutes of looking around, I finally speak up. "Maybe we got the place wrong, I mean we could've made a mistake with the address."

Jake takes a really long moment to think about it, then explodes into a cursing fit. "Fuck! When Erik said South Mangrove Dr., we took North."

"Exactly! Man, I knew we ended up in the wrong place. People around here weren't acting like controllers, especially when no one gave a huge deal about the flies."

"Well, except for that woman." Cassie pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was different. She probably wanted us dead because we were gonna get her fired." Rachel replies.

Jake finally stops muttering curses for a moment and says, "We might as well just go. We might still have time to get those Kandrona components", he says as someone opens the door.

A security guard looks at us from the doorway in surprise. His eyes especially stare transfixed at Ax, as if he has never seen anything like him before. He pulls an alarm button, then runs from the room.

"Shit" I am able to say before I notice a silvery colored gas coming from the bottom of the room.

The world starts spinning and gets blurry as I crumple down and pass out.

* * *

When I wake up, I find us all tied and bound with thick plastic cords on our legs and arms. Ax lays slumped on the floor, limbs bound up like us, but with a heavy metal brace chained to the floor on his tail and a extra large cone collar used for dogs around his neck.

I would've laughed at how ridiculous he looked like with the cone if I hadn't been trapped here with all these people. As I struggled with my bound hands for a couple of minutes, I thought about how we all have had a good run trying to defeat the Yeerks and how I never even got to save my mother from the war. Too bad we were probably going to die in the hands of these psychos.

"One of them woke up."

I look up and see five people holding guns, most shaking with fear, at the other end of the sterile white room. The woman with the lab coat that we had seen earlier is the only one standing with at least the look of composure on her face.

"Good, now that you're awake kid, I would suggest that you start from the very beginning." She says, walking forward, gun pointed directly at my head.

I shake my head and pretend to look disoriented as I come up with something. "God, my head hurts like hell. Hi, whoever you are, do you know where I am? The last thing that I remembered was playing at the arcade and all of the sudden I end up here. Hey, can you show me the way out? I'm pretty sure that my parents would kill me if they found out that I ditched my afterschool program for this."

She smirks cruelly. "Little bastard. Do you think that I would believe you for a moment? We saw you guys on the camera, going from flies to human. Now, since you know that anything that if you say otherwise, we will know that it is an immediate lie, I really implore you to go on about your business here." She leans and puts the pistol against my head. "Or your brain cells will go flying in every square inch of this room."

Crap, I had never even seen the security cameras. Tears come to my eyes as I realize that these people are insane enough to kill me now. "Ok", I say sobbing, but willing to give another try to not reveal our identities. "I did go here, but it was all because a couple of bozos dared us sneak in here."

Her eyebrows raise at the word "couple". "So you were sent here and, according to you, as a dare."

I nod, praying that she might be convinced.

Instead, she presses the gun deeper into my skull. "Nice try, kid, but you just admitted to being sent here. But I ask who the hell sent you here and why?"

My eyes stare wide eyed at this monster. Suddenly, I hear the others stirring and a metal chain shake.

"What the hell is going on?" Jake asks.

It seems as if these people have imprisoned us here. Ax says as he stares at the metal brace then at the five other people across the room. And, frankly, this thing is very embarrassing. he adds, refering to the cone around his head. The woman starts to back away slowly as she realizes that the Andalite is awake, but drags me with her, gun still against my head.

"If any of you make a move, I will shoot your friend." She says at them.

"You demented bitch, what do you think you're doing!" screams out Rachel. "You have a freaking gun pointed at a child. Do you know how wrong that is?"

"You are all the demented ones for coming here when your creed has obviously been slaughtered off. You of all people should've been taught by your superiors about the dangers of trespassing messing with the Templars. Are you all just a bunch of young trainees that really thought that this would make you the ballsy heroes if you tried to infiltrate this facility?"

"What do you even know about us?" asks Cassie.

The woman narrows her eyes, then tells us all about a group known as the Creed, a group of assassins who have been around since at least the Middle Ages, killing political figures and stealing things known as Pieces of Eden.

"Sounds familiar?" she asks. When we shake our heads, she throws her hands up. "Ugh, come on. None of this rings a frigging bell. 'Nothing is true, everything is permitted'?"

One of the guards pipes up when he sees our dumbfounded faces. "Um, I think that they aren't assassins. I think that they are regular kids."

She turns to glare at him. "They just trespassed the facility, pretending to be flies, and just walk around the Animus Training Facility that we had all set up. Gee, and this all happen right after the Great Purge." Then she glances over her shoulder to where Ax is. "Besides, do you call that _thing_ over there a regular kid!"

He stares at her at a complete loss for words. She rolls her eyes as she says, "Never mind, I think that I have another approach at getting at these people. Bring the assassin."

The security guard leaves the room, then comes back a few moments later with an unshaven man bound like us, but with a hardened expression on his face, as if he had seen the very depths of hell and lived to know them.

She smirks proudly as the guard unceremoniously throws the man on the ground. "Have you finally run out of insults to spit out at me, _traidor asesino_?" she whispers in his face as he glares at her with pure hatred.

Then he leans over and looks at us, then starts laughing. "Doctor, have you drugged me again?"

She mockingly smiles. "I'm afraid not. What you are looking at is definitely not a figment of your imagination."

He shudders as he looks at us. "Is this another way that you plan to get me to spill out information over the last remaining Assassin dens. Because, like I've told you so many times, I only worked at one den and received information from there."

"No, we wouldn't care much about those little insignificant play forts you call dens." She proceeds to put the gun against his head. "On the contrary, you are what will get the truth out of those children over there."

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

**(Crap, I try to include the freaking carrot symbol, but apparently it doesn't save stuff this way!)**

**Yup, I know that I put some OCs to move the plot a bit. I couldn't find any legit names of captured assassins during the Great Purge, nor could I find legit doctors working in Abstergo around the year 2000 and 2001. Don't worry though, they aren't of much significance and, besides, you'll probably never see them again...**

**And, yes, Marco did break a fourth wall back there, though I may say that I probably executed it just a bit weird.**

**If you enjoyed or hated the story, please comment and let me know exactly why. I'll tweek up the story to any specifications! :)**


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